


Who You Are

by Emily (JustAround)



Series: August 2018 Fic-A-Day [4]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-04
Updated: 2018-09-04
Packaged: 2019-07-06 16:38:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15889923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustAround/pseuds/Emily
Summary: Dawn thought they knew what she was, knew the source of the Key.  She couldn't fathom how wrong she was.





	Who You Are

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this idea floating around for years and hope to get back to it.

The pain started in the corner of her palm, in the muscle of her thumb, before traveling quickly through the rest of her palm, until her entire hand was cramping. Dawn winced and paused her writing, dropping her pen onto her notebook to stretch her fingers out in an attempt to alleviate the cramp. It lessened slightly, but not enough for her to pick up the pen again. Glancing down at her phone, Dawn’s eyes bugged out slightly as she looked at the time, realizing she’d been writing for almost two hours straight.

No wonder her hand ached so much.

The sound of a groan to her right caused her to look over, meeting the eyes of another Council Researcher and share a grin of commiseration. A further peek around showed others in her group were in a similar predicament, with others grimacing as they massaged their hands. The movements attracted Willow’s attention, who paused mid-sentence and gave a half-smile, half-grimace.

“Sorry, guys,” she apologized, wringing her hands together. “I lost track of the time. But this coalescence of magic in an area otherwise negative for magic is just so fascinating and I’m really hoping all of the observations and readings I’m getting will help us figure out what caused it. When we get back to London, I’ll want to read over all of your notes to see if it can give me a better picture, because so far this is just a crazy puzzle.”

“But for now,” she continued, “Take a ten minute break.”

Dawn immediately flopped backwards onto the grass, releasing a long sigh of relief. The researched next to her giggles, and Dawn turned her to head to give her a smile.

“I know the feeling,” Sophie explained. “I think my hand is about to fall off.”

“Tell me about it,” Dawn groaned, not moving from her position. “I think we all deserve full manicures and massages after this.”

“Agreed.”

Both women lapsed into silence as they took time to decompression from their hectic morning. Ever since magic had started pulsing from this area - was it yesterday? The day before? The time change was messing with Dawn’s head - every head witch, wizard, and Council researcher from around the world had been called together to figure out what was happening. Even Willow had been puzzled by the magic, since, according to her, it was unlike any magical source she had dealt with before.

“Honestly,” she had commented to Buffy, “It seems more chaotic than anything we’ve dealt with.”

Which was why Dawn found herself sitting at the ruins of a castle on the shores of Loch Ness, scribbling notes until her hand cramped. Granted, it wasn’t the worst thing that had ever happened to her. At least this time, she at least got to sit in a rather picturesque area without the threat of destruction raining down. There was that.

A movement from the corner of her eye distracted Dawn, causing her to turn her head just as Willow stiffened and hissed, her hair going white. Dawn missed it, missed as her fellow researchers immediately came to attention, missed as the other witches and wizards that had accompanied them jolted at the sudden flow of magic filling the air.

She stood up, brow furrowing as she headed towards the source of the movement, part of her wanting to swear on her life that she knew who was causing the movement. But it was so brief, so slight, she could not confirm it. Instead of calling for the others she walked towards the movement, movement that always seemed to occur out of the corner of her eye. The grass under her feet seemed to harder to rock, her footsteps echoing down a now fully paved path. The castle walls around her, walls that were falling down and missing stones were now strong bulwarks, able to withstand attacks from enemy catapults.

Dawn ignored the changes as she stalked forward with a purpose. She needed to find who was behind the movement.

There was an explanation for it, but she felt compelled to follow them.

The last remaining tower of the ruins loomed before her, though it seemed more robust than when she had arrived. Two doors greeted her; for some reason, she knew the one would lead down into the bowels of the castle, into an area that was hidden from others.

_“We’re dug into the rock. There’s plenty of room down below.”_

Ignoring the unexpected voice that seemed to come with the wind, Dawn instead went through the second door, the door with stairs that would lead her to the top of the tower.

The answer would be there, she knew.

The stairs were firm and whole under her feet, a long way from the ones she swore had been closed off for unsafe conditions. Up she went, until she walked onto the tower, staring at the ocean - wasn’t it supposed to be a Loch? - before her. Endless blue greeted her and she squinted as if to get a better look. From out above the waves, a wispy cloud began to form, slowly growing stronger to create a form that sped over the ocean and loomed above her.

Her hands went up automatically as the dragon sped towards her. Dawn pressed forward with her hands, preparing to stop the dragon -

And it disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared. She blinked at the clouds surrounding her, her eyes traveling to the center of them. A sudden gasp escaped her lips as Tara appeared in the clouds, her gaze calm as she met Dawn’s.

“You think you know who you are, what’s your purpose. You haven’t even begun.”

Hands grabbed at Dawn, shaking her, shouting her name, and still Tara stared at her, her eyes turning from the familiar blue to shadowy pits that seemed to go on forever, boring into Dawn’s as…

Dawn gasped as she sat up, bits of grass falling out of her hair, her clothes as she took in great heaving breaths of air. A weight on her right arm caught her attention and she turned to see a worried Sophie holding her up. Dawn blinked and shook her head, the sudden feel of a migraine causing her hands to unconsciously go to her forehead in attempted pain relief.

“Dawn, what happened?” Willow’s voice pulled her out of her pain, and Dawn looked up at the white-faced woman. “There was a spike of magic, and you screamed and passed out. Nobody could wake you up.”

“Yeah,” Dawn said faintly, allowing Willow to help steady her. “About that. I think we need to talk to Buffy.”


End file.
